CLEMSON – Pull up a shot chart of almost any Clemson basketball game last year, and you will find some recurring themes.
In these charts, made public by national media sites, open orange circles usually represent missed shots by Tiger players while colored circles represent made baskets. Throughout the majority of Clemson’s 2025-26 season, in big ACC matchups and non-conference games alike, the bulk of the team’s filled-in spheres were found around the hoop.
The colored circles represent tough, contested kisses off the glass by big man R.J. Godfrey.
Putback dunks by 6-foot-11 center Carter Welling.
Barrelling drives to the rim by budding star guard Ace Buckner.
Nearly half of the Tigers’ points (42 percent) came inside the paint last season, largely due to Godfrey, Welling and center Nick Davidson, three of Clemson’s top four scorers last season who all specialized around the rim.
These big men could run the floor, create fast break opportunities and, in Welling and Davidson’s part, could step outside to shoot the three-pointer. Still, the Tigers’ winning recipe and blue-collar blueprint to make runs to the NCAA Tournament the last three years have come from post play and lockdown defense.
However, that could change in the 2026-27 season.
“We might be a little bit different in how we play,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said at the 2026 ACC Tipoff Event Wednesday. “I think we’re a little more guard-centric than maybe the last few years. And so we’re trying to open the floor a little bit more, playing some spread ball, screen stuff a little bit earlier in the clock and see how that goes.”
When looking at the construction of the Tigers’ roster for this upcoming season, Brownell’s assertion makes sense.
Clemson returns Buckner, now entering his second full year of play. Beside him, freshman phenom Zac Foster returns after suffering an ACL tear last December.
Joining the pair in the backcourt will be Notre Dame transfer Cole Certa, who averaged 16.1 points and shot 35.3 percent from long-range in ACC-play last season, as well as freshman Harris Reynolds, a former four-star high school prospect.
Pending a civil court appeal, veteran guard Dillon Hunter could also rejoin the fray.
“I think we’ve recruited some really good shooters and worked really hard in that area to be able to space the floor,” Brownell said. “If we can come together and be connected and defend like most of the Clemson teams that I’ve coached, we have a chance to achieve the kind of things you talked about.”
The change may seem stark, especially after big-men like Viktor Lakhin, Ian Schieffelin and P.J. Hall willed the Tigers to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances with bootstraps and lockdown defense in the last few years. Welling, who is coming back from an ACL tear of his own, however, is not threatened by the change in mentality.
“I think with how well we’ve been shooting the ball in practice, it’ll give a lot of space,” Welling said. “It means they won’t be able to double team me down low. So, you know, I’m all for good guard play, man. I’m all for it.”
In all fairness, Brownell and the Tigers have benefitted from elite guard play down the stretch of ACC seasons in recent years, from Chase Hunter’s 40.7-percent season from beyond-the-arc and Jeadyn Zackery’s two steals and three assists per game in 2024 to Joseph Girard’s 105 made three-pointers in 2024.
But now, Buckner believes this could be the start of a new guard-centric era in Littlejohn Coliseum. For the underclassman, it all starts with confidence.
“(Brownell) has a lot of trust in us, but that comes with a lot of responsibility,” Buckner said. “Me, guys like Dillon, Zac, Harris, we got a lot on our shoulders. You know, he actually talked to us today at practice. He got on us about doing more. And I feel like if your head coach has that confidence in you and that feel that you can do so much, that you can lead a team, I feel like why should you not have it in yourself?”
The new-look Tigers will get their first chance to show off their style in an exhibition game against Georgia on Oct. 23.